The Ubiquitous Society, Viewed from an Imaginative and Scientific Perspective

In the sci-fi and anime world, machines and robots with unbelievable abilities have appeared. For instance, Yamato (from Space Battleship Yamato) could travel 148,000 light years back and forth, and Astro Boy could generate 100,000 horsepower. Also, Spaceship (from Captain Ultra) had the incredible ability to travel through space at 100 times the speed of light. I wonder what kind of technology would be needed to achieve such mind-boggling performance. To this thought, the fictional stories illustrate that the driving force behind such technologies was made possible by the scientific advancements in the future.

Yamato’s wave engine, Astro Boy's atomic powers, and Spiegel’s super photon force were all created from technology that is foreign to our real world. For the most part, fictional heroes use such imaginative future technology, but some of them that have utilized technology from the real world. The Riders from “Kamen Rider V3,” who used simple motorbikes and the Evangelion mecha from Evangelion, which were powered through a single cable, come to mind.

As the imaginative driving forces are not realized, it is unknown how effective they can really be. If the fictional robots were to appear in real life, I wonder if they would perform like they do when they grace our viewing screens.

The driving force most common in the dream science world is nuclear energy. Astro Boy, 8 Man, and Doraemon are robots that came equipped with some kind of internal nuclear reactor. In the case of Doraemon, this is a bit interesting, because as it is well known, Doraemon’s favorite food is dorayaki. Which makes me wonder… Can dorayaki fuel Doraemon’s nuclear reactor?

A nuclear reaction involves nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. The former has already been realized and is in practical use, whereas the latter is more so in a theoretical mode for practical application. The carbon and hydrogen contained in a dorayaki can generate energy if nuclear fusion can occur. In the real world, currently hydrogen fusion is being extensively researched, but by the 22nd century where Doraemon lives, I imagine that nuclear fusion using carbon and hydrogen would be achieved and be in practical use.

So, let’s visualize how much energy one dorayaki could actually generate. Say one dorayaki weighs 100 grams. If the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen contained in a dorayaki were to be compounded to iron, Doraemon would be able to be active for about four and a half years with his maximum power of 129.3 horsepower. Talk about an outstanding and efficient robot!

Let’s also take into consideration the fact that that Doraemon would probably eat more than one dorayaki a day. One may think that Doraemon’s rotund physique might be a result of eating too many dorayakis, but that cannot be possible, since robots cannot become thinner or thicker. Doraemon is actually shaped how he is for efficiency and safety purposes. When nuclear fission and fusion take place, radiation leaks could occur, and to prevent that, proper shielding is needed. Proper shielding would require a series of plates, each with a thickness of at least 30 cm. I imagine that there are many of these thick plates inside Doraemon's body, which explains his physique. Astro Boy and 8 Man, with their slim physiques should learn a thing or two from Doraemon's efficient body instead of being indifferent to safety. It's not about what is on the outside. It’s about what is in the inside.

Speaking of safety and environmental friendliness, many of the bikes used by the successive Kamen Riders exemplified these virtues. V3’s hurricane used nuclear power, Rider X’s cruiser had an unknown type of power source, Amazon’s Jungler used a sunstone, Stronger’s Kabutoroh used an electric engine, and Skyrider’s Sky Turbo used a hydrogen engine. All of them were clean, “pollution- free vehicles.”

The sunstone power source used by Jungler was a special Inca ore. It is said to hold energy equivalent to the amount needed to power the electronic appliances for 100,000 households over 20 years, nonstop. If we assume that an average household uses 3kW a day, the total power consumption of 100,000 households over 20 years would be 53 billion kW!!! This is three times the power generated from the hydrogen bomb tested at Bikini Atoll in 1952. The Inca technology, having such a huge amount of energy in one single stone, cannot be underestimated by any means. To make sure that the effect doesn’t go full throttle at once, full attention must be paid to how the sunstone is used!

In some cases, a hydrogen engine can generate nitrogen oxide from the nitrogen and oxygen present in high temperatures. If this can be stopped, only water will be released, and it will make things unpolluted for certain. This is actually being researched in real life today. In 2006, a test vehicle created by the Hydrogen Energy Laboratory Project recorded a speed of 180 km/h. In comparison, Skyrider’s Sky Turbo can reach mach 1.2, which is 1470 km/h. The inventor of the Sky Turbo you ask? He is Dr. Shido, a master in body engineering. His invention is even more impressive when you consider that it came from a field outside his specialty. If this was real life, the Hydrogen Energy Laboratory Project should definitely invite Dr. Shido to assist in their research.

Stronger’s bike Kabutoroh is interesting in that its electric engine is similar to present day real-life technology. Its top speed is normally a not-too-out-of-this-world 300 km/h, but it can increase to 1010 km/h if the headlights are hit by lightning. It is a bike that emits no pollution and takes advantage of lightning, which we usually consider to be a source of disaster. Simply put, Kabutoroh is a vehicle for a true hero.

Still I ponder... how often does one get hit by lightning in the first place? I would think that getting hit even once during a lifetime would be considered rare. So I cannot help but question the practicality of the speed- up system Kabutoroh uses.

What makes me dream of even bigger things are what spaceships bring to the table. The anime, “The Silver Mask,” involves a story of five siblings who venture out to space with their father’s creation, a photon force rocket. A very futuristic and intriguing story, but I wonder if they could actually go to space with such a vehicle.

I'm skeptical because very little power and energy can be attained from light. For example, the sunrays that hit the Earth have a brightness of 800W per 1 m2, however, they only emit 0.3 mg of power per 1 m2, which is the equivalent of 1/10th the weight of a mosquito. This means that when sunlight hits a six-mat room, it emits just enough power to stop a single mosquito.

With such limited power, it would be very difficult to launch ― of all things ― a rocket. If the Photon force rocket were to weigh 100 tons, 290 billion kW of power would be needed for a successful launch. How much is this, you ask? It is approximately 160 times the entire world’s capacity for generating energy. Saying so, I’m not sure if it would be okay to use this much energy just to send five people off to space. Even more disturbing is the fact that 290 billion kW of laser power would need to be aimed at the Earth’s surface simply to achieve the necessary photon power. If we were to assume the rocket’s diameter to be 4 meters (similar to a H2-A rocket), in one single second, a 160-meter-deep hole will be drilled into the Earth’s surface! Needless to say, the photon force rocket should learn from the Kamen Riders and be nicer to the Earth.

Yamato is an interesting spaceship in that its wave engine used space energy. As such, it never needed to be refueled, and the ship was able to travel 148,000 light years.

So what exactly is “space energy” in the first place? When the anime was first broadcast in 1974, it was nothing more than an imaginary thought. But in 2003, it was discovered that the space was filled with what is called as “dark energy.” Being a “Yamato” fanatic, I was moved by tears when I first heard of this.

With this newfound form of energy, I wonder how much power Yamato can generate. The space density of dark energy is said to be 3.6 W a second per 1 km3. This is very little. Even if Yamato were to be taking in energy from its cross-section, which spans about 3000 m2, it would only be able to move only 40 meters during the one year before the Earth crumbles. Note that 40 meters is approximately 1/7th of Yamato’s body length (285.8 meters)!

From the above examples, it seems that moving things is not easy even with the use of dream technology and its various driving forces. To the engineers of the future, please don’t let this thought impede you from achieving new breakthroughs. The future is in your hands!